Topic: Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories
Country: Canada
Delegate Name: Gavin Shrestha
School: Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Canada position papers GLIMUN 2013 committees
Canada believes that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are unfair. The racism against Palestinians has gotten out of hand in our eyes. It was reported that 95% of Palestinian prisoners are tortured in jail. Women, minors, and even sick internees are not spared from this torture. Another example of extreme violation of human rights is armed Jewish settlers bulldozing Palestinian land in Qaryut villages. Qaryut is targeted almost every day in order to annex even more of its lands into nearby settlements. In reality Israel really doesn’t have that much of an economic benefit to settlement construction. Even if they did, the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the occupied territories and Israel is in direct violation to the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel should not be able to keep land gained strategically in war because no country has been able to. The land is currently only being used as a buffer zone to for battles fought during wars.
Canada believes that there is a compromise that can be reached between Israeli and Palestine people if Israel would co-operate so that Israel doesn’t have to give up all of their land. If there was a total moratorium on new settlement construction the violation of human rights against Palestinians would still exist. It seems slightly extreme to ask Israel to withdraw from all the settlements they annexed. Since Israel and Palestine obviously have problems we believe withdrawal of certain land could be a possible answer. A land swap between Egypt and Palestine could also be a possible resolution because this would have separation of Palestinians and Jewish people so the violence would end.
